[Histonet] nissl re-staining

[Soyoung Park]

Hi,
I just started histology in June, and I'm currently working with
60~80-micron-thick brain tissues. My first few batches of thionin stain came
out extremely light, making it impossible for me to perform stereology on
those sections. So I'm trying to find a way to re-stain them but so far I
haven't been able to acquire a good protocol. Could anyone help me with
this?
Another thing, I figured out the right amount of time to keep the tissues in
thionin, and I've been able to get some purple (pretty) sections.  But
often, instead of purple, I get something closer to dark blue, which my PI
thinks is not right. To me it seems like xylene or Histoclear is doing
something, becaue the sections look okay until I put them in xylene, then in
Histoclear. Does anyone know what this is about? Will I be able to fix this
by re-staing?
Thank you.
-- 
Soyoung Park
Biology '09
California Institute of Technology
MSC 769 Pasadena, CA